1. Go surfing anyway You can still try of course… how desperate are you? Have you, for example, been landlocked in Mali for the last 3 weeks perhaps?!! We took the fins out of the mal in an attempt to make the 1-foot peelers more interesting… (P.S. Stu – we haven’t forgotten that we still [...]

Great news! Those more enthusiastic supporters of AfricanSurfer.com may have noticed that there hasn’t been a photo update since early Cote d’Ivoire… while the blogposts clearly show that we are now well North of that country. As it happens, much the same as in my left foot (causing large-scale infection), we have a bug in [...]

After ticking-off the disappointing Tombouctou, and finishing-up with touristy Dogon country, the AfricanSurfer team decided to flee the packs of kids screaming “BIC! BIC!” to a slightly lesser-known area of the country. We were first tipped-off about the “le Monument Valley de Mali” near Hombori from a German overlanding couple we met in Togo. They [...]

A taxi to the village – Kribi – Southern Cameroon With relatively few taxis operating on the gravel route between our camp at Tara Plage and the village of Kribi, we were stoked when this driver offered to take ALL 3 OF US on his little 50cc motorbike. We were so impressed by his handling [...]

Whoever would have thought it, but one of our favourite things in Mali has to be the tea culture. Every single citizen, rich or poor, seems to own a small blue metal kettle which they fill with Chinese gunpowder green tea and fire up over some small coals, tending to constantly. There is actually a [...]

So what do you do when you arrive in Timbuktu to find not much else except overpriced motels? You go against all the advice of the guidebooks and take a camelride out to the desert to spend the night in a Toureg camp, of course! One catch – all the good camels are somewhere in [...]

Mzee Kobe has been a good horse, carting us through what have to be some of the worst roads in the world from Cape Town to Mali, our current location. But of late the heavy roads seem to finally be taking their toll on our poor 1981 Toyota LandCruiser. The first sign of alarm was [...]

The phantom bridge over the Congo River – Mathadi – Democratic Republic of Congo One of the most common questions while traversing Angola was “but how are you going to cross the Congo river?”. It was thus with some trepidation that we arrived at DRC border town Mathadi, but were relieved to find this fantastic [...]

We’ve met quite a few fellow travelers here in Mali, and they all say the same thing: “Yes we know there is actually nothing to see there and will be disappointed. But when we tell our friends that we visited Mali, their first question will be “did you go to Timbuktu?”. So we have to [...]

Our second significant religious structure was the Grand Mosquee in the ancient town of Djenne in Mali. Originally built in 1820 and reconstructed in 1907, this is the largest mud-brick building in the world and a UNESCO world-heritage site. Walking around one gets the feeling that this might also possibly be the largest tourist-tout haven [...]

Contrary to popular belief, sleeping, surfing and drinking beer is not all the AfricanSurfer crew do all day. Every now and then we do get out and do something vaguely culturally-enriching. Take the last few days, for example, where we have visited not one, but two of the most significant religious structures in the world… [...]

Francois Pienaar has been ousted from 2oceansvibe and so has the question, where were you when we won the world cup in 1995? For the AfricanSurfers, the answer to the question this time around will be easy to remember: Assinie Mafia, Cote d’Ivoire A lone South African flag flies triumphantly in the middle of West [...]

It may sound cliched, but one of the big lessons we’ve learnt on our trip through Africa is “expect the unexpected”. Whether it be the site of a completely naked man walking through a busy village without raising an eyelid, or an old Peugeot pickup-truck with a block of wood for suspension overloaded with yams [...]

We had to laugh when we had word from friends back home of some AfricanSurfer coverage in the latest edition of South African surfmag ZIGZAG. So if you want to crack a picture into the ‘ZAG, here’s what you’ve gotta do: Go on a year-long surftrip of a lifetime up the west coast of your [...]

African roads aren’t great and can take their toll on your vehicle, especially if the aforesaid vehicle was only barely in good shape before you left on the 15 000km journey to get you to where you are! So you’re a stranger in a big West African city you’ve never been to before, here’s what [...]

The story of Drogba When we first arrived in Cote d’Ivoire we were fortunate enough to be introduced to one of Cote d’Ivoire’s great favourites… Drogba! This was not, however, the Chelsea striker but the Ivorian beer, Bock. It is an impressive one litre beer, which has been nicknamed Drogba after Cote d’Ivoire’s most famous [...]

Africa + Surfing = AfricanSurfer

The original trip

March 2007: Tim, Lurks & Stone mission north from Cape Town up the west coast of Africa, in search of good waves and good times.
Their vehicle: a trusty 1981 Landcruiser named Mzee Kobe (The Old Tortoise).
Their final destination: London... finally arriving almost a year behind schedule in latter 2008!